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What is international law definition. The concept of international law, the subject of regulation. International law as a special legal system

As a result of studying this chapter, the student must:

know theoretical basis international law;

be able to legally competently understand and evaluate international and domestic events and facts of international legal significance; assess the situation and identify the problem requiring the application of knowledge and norms of international law; find and legally competently understand the necessary international legal material;

own the skills of using the methodology of comparative legal analysis; possess the skills to use international legal material; possess the skills of using domestic legal material of international legal significance.

Concept, system and subjects of international law

The theory of law highlights the the present stage general planetary development trends and the state of international law. First of all, this is a constant increase in the role and importance of international law in the life of civilization, in general, one of the real ways of survival and existence of mankind as a biological species and a unique social organization... Fyodor Martens, a Russian international lawyer, the founder of the Russian school of international law, wrote about international law: "The object of international management law is the totality of all life relations between states, public groups and individuals that require assistance, patronage or protection state power" .

In 1945, at a conference in San Francisco (USA), 50 states signed the most important international treaty - the Charter of the United Nations (UN), which laid the foundation for modern international law. The UN Charter enshrines the fundamental principles of international law, which have supreme legal force and are new system international law.

International law- this is system of legal norms governing interstate relations. This definition reflects the main characteristics of international law.

International law is a body of legal norms grouped in a certain way. That is international law has its own system.

System of international law- it is his a structure consisting of international legal norms combined into institutions, sub-sectors and industries. Thus, the smallest element of the system of international law is the norm of international law.

Norm of international law - This is a legally binding rule of behavior of subjects of international law, established by the subjects of international law themselves and carried out by them voluntarily or with the help of coercion. The norms of international law are created by the subjects by agreement among themselves. The norms of international law are legally binding, their violation entails international legal responsibility. The content of the norms of international law is made up of the rights and obligations of states and other subjects of international law.

The following classification of international law can be proposed:

  • 1) by scope:
    • - universal, their signs are: globality of action, universal binding force, creation and abolition by the international community as a whole, for example, the norms of the PLO Charter;
    • - regional - they are created and operate in a specific geographic region, necessary for deeper interaction of states in this region, for example, the norms of treaties operating within the framework of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan;
    • - particular - they apply to a limited circle of participants, in most cases they are contained in bilateral agreements. For example, the norms of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments dated November 27, 1998;
  • 2) by the method of legal regulation:
    • - imperative (jus cogens ) - have special legal force, deviation from them is not permissible, even by agreement of the subjects of international law, an international treaty that contradicts them is invalid. An example is the generally recognized principles of international law, enshrined in the UN Charter, which will be discussed below;
    • - dispositive - allow derogation from them, by mutual agreement of the subjects of international law (this should not affect legal rights and the interests of other subjects of international law), have full legal force, if the subjects have not agreed otherwise, then they are obliged to comply with the dispositive norm and in case of its violation are responsible; the dispositiveness of the norm does not consist in limited legal force, but in the fact that it gives the subjects the right to settle relations in a different way than provided for by the dispositive norm. An example of a dispositive international legal norm is Art. 22 Vienna Convention on the law of international treaties in 1969, according to which, "unless the treaty provides otherwise, the reservation may be withdrawn at any time and the consent of the state that accepted the reservation is not required for its withdrawal";
  • 3) by source:
    • - ordinary - the source is international legal custom (unwritten norms);
    • - contractual - the source is an international treaty (norms of written law).

Branch of international law Is a set of international legal norms governing relations between subjects of international law in any one broad area of ​​their international cooperation.

The following branches of international law can be distinguished: the law of international treaties, international maritime law, international space law, international air law, international environmental law, international economic law, international humanitarian law, international diplomatic law, international consular law, etc.

Sub-branch of international law - it is a union of several institutions of the branch of international law. Moreover, not every branch of international law includes sub-branches. Sub-sectors, for example, include such a branch of international law as international economic law. The subsectors of international economic law, in particular, include: international trade law, international investment law, international financial law.

Institute of International Law - it is a complex of international legal norms regulating the relations of subjects of international law in a certain specific area. For example: the institution of border trade in international trade law, the institution of innocent passage through the territorial sea in the international maritime nature, the institution of invalidity of international treaties in the law of international treaties.

Why is it important to understand that international law is not just a sum of norms, but a system? First of all, because it is impossible to correctly interpret and apply to a specific case one norm without systematic consideration of other norms of international law. So, in accordance with the Declaration on the principles of international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation between states in accordance with the UN Charter 1970 (paragraph 2), when interpreting and applying the generally recognized principles of international law, states proceed from the fact that the principles "are interconnected and each of them must be considered in the context of other principles. " So, for example, without interpreting the principles of self-determination of peoples and territorial integrity in the context of each other, it is impossible to resolve conflict situations associated with the separation of part of the state's territory, such as the separation of Kosovo from Serbia or South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia in 2008.

In addition, international law is divided into general and specific parts. The general part of international law consists of norms and principles applicable in all areas international relations... A special part consists of branches of international law.

International law regulates interstate relations.

Interstate relations - these are relations in which sovereign states, international organizations and state-like entities participate.

Interstate relations are the subject of international law. The object of international law is material and non-material benefits, about which interstate relations arise (for example, territory, natural resources).

Today it is almost impossible to give an example of any area of ​​international relations that would not be regulated by international law: military, scientific, cultural cooperation, economic relations, environmental protection and human rights, etc.

Interstate relations arise between subjects of international law... This status gives the subjects international legal personality - the legal property of a particular entity. A feature of the subjects of international law is that they are not only the bearers of international rights and obligations, but also create for themselves the norms of international law. In international law, there is no supreme body over the subjects, but the ancient Roman principle operates - par in parem pop habet imperium (equal over equal has no power). Therefore, the subjects of international law themselves create mechanisms to ensure it.

Subject of international law Is an entity capable of possessing rights and obligations arising from international law, protecting them and entering into international relations governed by international law.

There are primary, secondary and atypical subjects of international law.

The primary and main subjects of international law are the state. States are subjects of international law by virtue of their existence. Regardless of which bodies represent the state in international relations (government, head of state, minister of foreign affairs, etc.), the quality of the subject of international law belongs to the state as a whole.

The state, as a subject of international law, must have the following characteristics: state sovereignty, state territory, population, state power.

State sovereignty - it is the supremacy of the state on its territory and its independence in international relations. Only states have sovereignty. For the realization of the sovereign rights of the state, the concept of jurisdiction is essential.

Jurisdiction - This is a manifestation of sovereignty, which means the scope and scope of state power. Distinguish the following types jurisdictions:

  • - by volume: full and limited;
  • - by scope: territorial and extraterritorial;
  • - by the nature of power: legislative, executive and judicial.

Within its territory, the state exercises full jurisdiction. The state exercises full extraterritorial jurisdiction on sea, air and space ships located in the international space, as well as in the premises of diplomatic missions on the territory of other states. The state exercises limited jurisdiction over its citizens who are outside its territory.

Territory - these are the spaces of the land and water surface of the earth, its bowels, air space and space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies. The presence of a territory (as well as the presence of sovereignty) is a property of the state as a subject of international law. In international law, three types of territory are distinguished, depending on the legal regime: a state territory, a territory with a mixed regime, and a territory with an international regime.

State territory - This is the territory to which the sovereignty of the state extends.

Mixed Regime Territory Is a space that is not under the sovereignty of any state, but in respect of which the state exercises certain sovereign rights, within the limits established by international law. First of all, these are the rights of exploration, development and protection of natural resources. The territories with a mixed regime include: the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and the continental shelf.

Territory with international regime - this is the space that is located outside state borders and is in the common and equal use of all states. The regime of this type of territories is determined exclusively by international law. Such territories include: space; the open sea, the bottom below it (area) and the airspace above it; Antarctic.

Population - this is the totality of all individuals located on the territory of the state and subject to its jurisdiction. The state exercises territorial jurisdiction over persons located on its territory, regardless of their citizenship, as well as personal jurisdiction over its own citizens who are outside its borders. Thus, the category of the population includes: citizens of a given state, foreigners and stateless persons. The category of persons who do not fall under the jurisdiction of the host state are diplomats, consular officers, employees of special missions, and their family members.

Government. The subject of international law is the state as a whole, and not its organs (state authorities). Of course, an international treaty is concluded by the state in the person of any body of state power. But even if this is an intergovernmental agreement concluded by the state in the person of the ministry, such an agreement obliges the state as a whole, and not just its ministry. The behavior of any body of the state should be considered as an act of this state, regardless of: what functions this body performs (legislative, executive or judicial); what is the position of this body in the state system; whether it is a central authority or an administrative-territorial unit of the state.

Secondary (derivative) subjects of international law are international organizations , due to the fact that they are endowed with international legal personality by states. An international organization is a union of states, which has international legal personality and permanent bodies, created on the basis of an international treaty for the implementation of the goals stipulated by the constituent (statutory) document.

An international organization has the following characteristics:

  • 1) creation in accordance with international law. The establishment of any international organization should not infringe on the interests of an individual state or the international community as a whole. The constituent document of the organization must comply with the generally recognized principles of international law and other norms. jus cogem;
  • 2) an institution on the basis of an international treaty. As a rule, international organizations are created on the basis of an international treaty. For example, an international treaty on the basis of which the World trade Organization(WTO), is the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO;
  • 3) the presence of constituent acts. These are charters, statutes, which define the rights and obligations of an international organization, membership issues, the status of the organization, the authority to conclude international treaties, the goals and objectives of the organization, the structure and powers of its bodies, etc. For example, constituent document The UN is the UN Charter 1945;
  • 4) implementation of cooperation in specific areas. Typically, international organizations are created to work in a specific area, such as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). However, there are also universal international organizations, which, first of all, include the UN;
  • 5) the presence of an appropriate organizational structure. This feature confirms the permanent character of an international organization and thereby distinguishes it from numerous other forms of international cooperation. For example, the UN has six main organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice and the Secretariat;
  • 6) the existence of the rights and obligations of the organization. The rights and obligations of an international organization are derived from the rights and obligations of the member states. It is the member states that endow the international organization with certain rights and obligations.

In addition to the named main subjects of international law, there are so-called "atypical subjects". Atypical subjects are entities that are recognized by the international community as a subject, although such an entity does not meet the criteria of a full-fledged subject of international law. The atypical subjects of international law include nations and peoples fighting for their independence, the Vatican and free cities.

Nations and peoples fighting for their independence are emerging states. In such situations, bodies are created that effectively exercise control over a significant part of the territory, represent the people in the international arena, i.e. acquire some signs of statehood. Such subjects of international law include unrecognized or partially recognized states, such as Taiwan and Palestine.

Vatican - city-state. Its official name is "Holy See". The Vatican is the center of the Roman Catholic Church. States recognize the right of the Vatican to be a party to an international treaty.

Free city - a specific political and legal entity with limited international legal personality. In particular, free cities could conclude international treaties. Currently, this phenomenon has become part of history. There were such free cities as Danzig, Memel, Krakow, etc.

  • A. B. Vengerov Theory of Government and Rights. M .: Omega-L, 2013.S. 449.
  • Martens F. F. Modern international law of civilized peoples. T. II. 5th ed. SPb., 1905.S. 10.
  • Australia, Argentina, Byelorussian SSR, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Great Britain, Venezuela, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Greece, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, India, Iraq, Iran, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Liberia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Syria, USSR, USA, Turkey, Ukrainian SSR, Uruguay, Philippines, France, Czechoslovakia, Chile, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia and the Union of South Africa.

a set of legal norms governing relations between states and other subjects of international communication (peoples and nations that have not realized the right to self-determination by international organizations). International law is also called international public law, in contrast to private international law. It regulates relations between states in the political, economic, social and other fields. The norms of international law are contained in the UN Charter, numerous international treaties, conventions and other documents.

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INTERNATIONAL LAW

a set and system of norms governing relations between states and its other subjects (international relations). Mp, as well as intrastate, regulates not all social relations that develop between its subjects, but only that part of them that needs legal regulation. Norms M.p. vary by subject this relationship... Composing in the aggregate a single normative system, they are subdivided into the norms of the general M. of the item, addressed to all of its subjects or to all of its main subjects - states, and local norms, addressed to two or more of its subjects, by agreement between which they are established (including local norms, individual norms can be distinguished, which determine the behavior of subjects in a particular case). A special role among the norms of general M. of the item belongs to its basic principles, which regulate in a generalized form the behavior of states and other subjects of international law, establishing their fundamental rights and obligations, and to which all other international legal norms must comply. In the last decades of the 20th century. in the system of norms of general M.p. they began to distinguish the norms of peremptory ones, which have the character of izsojenz (generally binding law). According to Art. 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969, "a peremptory norm of general M. p. is a norm that is accepted and recognized by the international community of states as a whole as a norm, deviation from which is unacceptable and which can only be changed by a subsequent norm of the law of the same nature. " The basic principles of international law, set forth, in particular, in the UN Charter and in the 1970 Declaration on the Principles of International Law concerning friendly relations and cooperation between states in accordance with the UN Charter (1970), are undoubtedly peremptory norms. However, the overwhelming number of norms of general M.p. are dispositive norms, i.e. those from which states and other subjects of M. p. can retreat in their local relationships, introducing certain changes in them that do not contradict the essence of a given norm of general M. of the item. Finally, among the norms of M.p. distinguish between regulatory norms, also called primary, i.e. norms governing the behavior of states and other subjects M. p. in the process of their mutual communication and cooperation, and law enforcement norms, also referred to as secondary (in the sense that they come into effect in the event of a violation by the subject of primary, regulatory norms), for example, the norms on the international responsibility of states for their internationally wrongful acts (see Art. International responsibility). An important achievement in the 80-90 gt. The 20th century, there was an understanding of the systemic nature of intrastate and public relations, which appeared as a result of the development general theory systems. M. p. - this is regulatory system, a system of interconnected, subject to certain rules of mutual relations, elements - international legal norms. Such rules are, for example, the rules on the compliance of all other international legal norms with the prescriptions of the basic principles and other peremptory norms of the international law; on the consistency of existing international legal norms, incl. norms of general M.p. and local; about the conditions of validity of norms, about their non-retroactivity; on changing or canceling a norm by a subsequent norm; on the prevalence of a special rule in relation to a general rule, etc. International legal norms, thanks to the indicated and other connections between them, are transformed into a single whole - the international legal system, in M.p. As a result, its rules can be interpreted and applied only in the light of their relationship with all others, or at least with some of its other rules. M. p. regulates certain international relations, which, as a result, acquire the character of legal relations; their parties are called subjects of international relations. The subjects of international (and national) law are not only the parties (subjects) who participate in the legal relationship, but also those who can participate in it, being endowed with subjective rights and subjective obligations. These are potential participants in the legal relationship, since the norm comes into effect in the presence of an established legal fact... Thus, the subjects of M. p. - these are the parties, persons endowed with the norms of M.p. subjective rights and / or obligations. Feature M. p. consists in the fact that its subjects are legally independent both from each other and from any third power structure standing above them, which could prescribe mandatory rules of conduct for them and ensure their observance, for over states and their associations entering into relationships , there is no superstate or other public (public) power. Therefore, the norms of M.p. are established by mutual consent and agreement between its subjects and they are also protected individually or collectively by applying in necessary cases compulsion to comply with them. Initially, states were the only subjects of international legal relations. The norms of modern M.p. continue to regulate mainly the relationship between states, as well as the relationship of states with international organizations and other subjects of international affairs. Thus, states are the main subjects of M. p. and the main real participants in international legal relations, since they need to constantly interact with each other, with international organizations and other subjects of the international law. Other, in addition to international organizations, institutions - subjects of M. p. are entities called international bodies created by agreement between states and guided in their activities international legal regulations. These are, in particular, international arbitrations and international courts (permanent and ae Nos), investigative, conciliation and other commissions, etc. Finally, special special actors M. p. are the peoples. Special in the sense that, in accordance with one of the basic principles of M.p. - the principle of equality and self-determination of peoples - the right to self-determination is recognized for all peoples, i.e. the right to freely, without outside interference, determine their political status and carry out their economic, social and cultural development. Every state is obliged to respect this right. Sources of M.p., i.e. the form in which it is expressed, the legally binding rules of conduct for the subjects of international relations, and which imparts to these rules the quality of the norm of M.p. One of such sources is an international treaty, which is understood as a written agreement between the subjects of an M.p., regulated by an M.p. The totality and system of norms governing the conclusion of international treaties constitutes a separate structure of M.p. (its branch), referred to as the law of international treaties. Other important sources of M. p. is the international custom defined in Art. 38 Statuses International Court of Justice UN as "proof of general practice accepted as law." In this definition it comes, firstly, on the practice of states, secondly, on their practice of certain behavior in similar situations and, thirdly, on the recognition by the international community of states of such repeated behavior as legally binding, i.e. about the tacit agreement of the states, which imparted to the specified behavior the quality of the international legal norm. After World War II 1939-45, under the auspices of the UN and other universal international organizations, substantial work on the codification of customary international norms, accompanied by their progressive development, as a result of which many general (universal) conventions were concluded. Another important source of M.p. are unilateral legal acts-obligations of states. These are official statements of the state addressed to all other states or to some of them and containing the obligation of certain legally significant behavior of the state in relations with other states indicated by it. Such statements acquire the nature of an agreement by virtue of the explicit or tacit (no objection, called a protest) consent of other states with the essence of the official statement made. The source of M. p. are also acts-orders to the states - members of international organizations or bodies that are legally binding for such states or have acquired such a character by virtue of the clearly established practice of this organization or body. Finally, the source of M.p. in relation to its individual norms (concerning any specific case) is the decision of international arbitration tribunals or courts, by the very condition of their formation, legally binding for the parties to the case in question. Responsibility in M. p. - unfavorable legal implications, occurring for the subject of law, who has violated its international obligations, and consisting in the application to him of the provisions of the Art. sanctions. In M. p. in fact and legally, we are talking only about the international responsibility of states, the existence of international responsibility of other subjects of the international community. problematic to say the least. The system of international legal norms - conventional and customary, general and individual, universal and local - is structured into groups of norms that in a particular case can only be applied jointly, possibly taking into account another or other groups of norms that also need to be applied, again taking into account attention to specific circumstances. Compared with the national M.p. it is structured very weakly in the sense that its systematic presentation in any written act-code (like a national code of laws) or in a number of interconnected, but independent acts-codes. In practice, only international maritime law has been codified. Structuring and systematization of M. p. is carried out in doctrinal form by the international legal doctrine, however, such a systematic presentation of M.p. inevitably subjective and multivariate. Nevertheless, the doctrine of M.p. makes a significant contribution not only to the study of mathematical theory, but also to the cause of its codification and progressive development. Lit .: Course of international law. M., 1967-1970. T. I-VII. ON. Ushakov

The concept of international law includes three main areas ( branches of international law).

International public law.

International public law is a system of legal norms that regulate relations between states, their representatives and other subjects of international relations. This type of international law, in turn, is divided into institutions such as:

  • diplomatic law;
  • international air law;
  • international space law;
  • international humanitarian law;
  • international maritime law;
  • international criminal law;
  • international economic law;
  • international environmental law;
  • international security law;
  • the law of international treaties;
  • the law of international organizations;
  • international consular law;
  • human rights law.

The main sources of international law in this direction:

  • international custom;
  • international treaty;
  • general principles of law;
  • court decisions;
  • legal extract.

Principles of international law:

  1. Non-use of force and threats by force.
  2. Peaceful means of resolving conflicts.
  3. Non-interference in the internal affairs of other states.
  4. The duty of states to cooperate with each other.
  5. The principle of the equality of peoples.
  6. The principle of the right of peoples to self-determination.
  7. Sovereign equality of states.
  8. Compliance with international legal obligations.
  9. The inviolability of state borders.
  10. Respect for human rights and freedoms.

International private law.

International private law- This is a set of legal norms of domestic legislation governing civil, private and labor relations, complicated by a foreign element. Roughly speaking, this type of legal norms regulates relations between the state or its citizens with foreigners who have come to the country for any purpose, for example, business.

Thus, public international law is the relations of states on some conditional neutral territory (the UN meeting room), and private law is international relations within a country, between residents and subjects of another state. So here subject of international law are not so much states and international organizations as individuals and legal entities.

Sources of private international law in Russia:

  • principles and norms of international law;
  • The Constitution of the Russian Federation;
  • Civil Code of the Russian Federation;
  • Family Code of the Russian Federation;
  • federal laws concerning international organizations.

In the implementation of private international law, sometimes such legal regulation method as a collision method. This method is unique and is absent in other branches of law. It consists in deciding what rules of law to use when regulating any relationship (the legislation of the Russian Federation or the legislation of the country from which the foreign entrepreneur came) and in what cases. For example, the detainee international criminal may be subject to trial or extradition.

Supranational law.

Supranational law- This is a system of international legal norms, the regulation of which is carried out by supranational subjects, that is, organizations that do not represent any state, or several states at once. An example is the UN. As a rule, the powers of such bodies are higher than those of the bodies of other states, in particular this concerns international courts:

  • International Court of Justice of the United Nations;
  • The International Criminal Court;
  • international arbitration court;
  • European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg);
  • International Court of Arbitration (Paris).

The most striking example of supranational law in our time is the system of European Union law.

INTERNATIONAL LAW

A branch of law that regulates political, economic, military, cultural and other relations between states. According to the definition adopted in the Soviet legal science, law is a set of norms expressing the will of the ruling class, sanctioned by the state power and provided by the coercive power of the state in order to protect, consolidate and develop social relations and orders that are beneficial and pleasing to the ruling class. The law of law, keeping within the framework of this general definition, has, however, in comparison with any domestic law, a number of specific features.

The peculiarities of the law of law from the point of view of its legal nature consist primarily in the fact that it is an interstate law. While in domestic law, its subjects, that is, the bearers of the rights and obligations established by legal norms, are individuals, institutions and associations that are under the authority of the state, the subjects of international law are the states themselves, which do not have power over them. ...

In recent decades, some functions in the field of international relations, previously inherent exclusively to states, have moved into the competence of international organizations (for example, in the field of ensuring peace or regulating selected issues economic and humanitarian cooperation, etc.). However, these organizations, including the organization of the United Nations that has arisen today, are by no means the subjects of the monetary policy in the sense in which they are considered to be separate states, because they do not possess either sovereignty or territorial supremacy - these are the most important signs of international legal personality. Such international organizations are new organs of international cooperation of sovereign states, and their powers are based not on any international power standing over states, as some bourgeois authors claim, but on the coordination of the will and actions of these states.

A separate person is also not a subject of a law-enforcement agency, although the law-making system contains norms that protect the rights of certain categories of persons, such as, for example, rules on the regime of foreigners. The presence of such norms only testifies to the fact that the special international protection of certain categories of persons is included in the circle of those state interests that constitute the object of international legal regulation. As a result, the respective persons themselves do not become participants in international communication and do not acquire any of the signs of international legal personality. Likewise, institutions and associations existing within the state are not subjects of M. p.

The second feature of the law is that there is not a single legislator in it, not a single code of laws in the sense that it is in domestic law. The norms of law enforcement are created by the subjects of this law themselves - states. Attempts to create a code of international law, undertaken since the end of the 18th century. individual scientists and international scientific institutions, were not crowned with success due to the conflicting interests of different states and the lack of unity of views on critical issues... Only partial codification had some success, that is, the codification of individual branches of industrial production, for example. laws and customs of war, etc.

The main sources of international customs are international customs, that is, rules of conduct that have become binding in the process of their long-term and uniform application in the practice of states (for example, rules concerning the position of diplomatic representatives), and mainly international agreements... The latter can act between all states, between groups of states or between two states and can determine how general foundations international relations, and specific issues of relations between these states.

Domestic laws and decisions of the courts of individual states on issues affecting international relations (for example, on the rights of foreigners, on the extradition of criminals, etc.) are not sources of law enforcement. becoming a model for legislation and judicial practice many states, they can lead to the creation of international custom and even be embodied in international agreements. Finally, the opinions of prominent representatives of the science of international law, even less than laws and court decisions, can serve as sources of international law; they constitute nothing more than material for argumentation in favor of the existence or non-existence of this or that international legal norm.

With all the variety of norms international law and on external form, in which they are expressed, and according to the circle of those states to which their action extends, and according to the nature of the subjects that they regulate - there are, however, certain principles that determine the fundamental foundations of international relations in a certain historical era and are binding on of all states, regardless of whether they are applied by custom or by virtue of international conventions. This is the so-called. general or basic principles, elementary universally recognized concepts of international relations. Recognition of these general basic principles or elementary concepts is very important for strengthening the rule of law in international relations. Therefore, it is quite understandable that the Soviet legal doctrine not only recognizes the existence of the basic principles of the law of law, but also emphasizes their significance.

The most important basic principles of international law at the present stage of its development are: the principle of maintaining universal peace and security, the principle of sovereignty, the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of another state, the principle of equality of states, and the principle of conscientious fulfillment of international treaties and obligations. The first of the above-mentioned principles entered the political sphere relatively recently, having transformed from a progressive political idea into legal rule... Other principles have been recognized as norms of M. p. For quite a long time, but now they are filled with new content.

These most important basic principles of the international movement found expression in a number of declarations issued by the allied states of the anti-fascist coalition during and after the Second World War, in particular in the declarations of the Moscow (1943), Tehran (1943), Crimean (1945) and Potsdam (1945) ) conferences, and are fixed in the UN Charter (preamble, Articles 1 and 2).

The third feature of the mass media is the absence in it of a centralized coercive apparatus. We know that "... law is nothing without an apparatus capable of force to the observance of the rule of law " (V.I. Lenin). These words of Lenin apply to all branches of law, including the law enforcement agency. However, although the law enforcement agency does not know either the international army or the international police and only recently there has been an international court, nevertheless, There is coercion, as in any other law, but it manifests itself in special forms. Before the First World War, the coercion necessary to ensure the observance of international obligations and, in general, the norms of industrial production, was carried out by the forces of individual, directly interested states, and in the doctrine of industrial production it was called "self-help." It could be expressed in reprisals, that is, in violent actions that are a response to the violation of the international law by another state, in military demonstrations up to blocking the shores of another state, and, finally, in a war. It should be noted that often "the defense of legitimate interests covered the goals of external expansion or subordination of a weaker state. After the First World War, attempts were made to establish collective forms of coercion. The League of Nations Charter provided for a system of economic and military sanctions against the aggressor. This system turned out to be ineffective; of the charter were very vague, and there were no specific ways to implement them; more importantly, with the exception of the USSR - during its stay in the League of Nations - the states that played a leading role in the League did not have a real readiness to use their armed forces to protect common interests of peace and security, for the protection of treaties and M. p.

The Second World War clearly showed the imperfection of the collective forms of coercion that existed before in relation to violators of the law. respect for M. p., supported by armed force of all Union States. The Charter of the United Nations Organization (Articles 45-51) presupposes a new, more effective system non-military and military coercive measures against acts of aggression. This system provides for the provision by each state of contingents of armed forces for joint coercive actions and the presence of an international military body - the Military Staff Committee, as well as various methods of non-military influence on individual states in connection with violations of the military equipment that threaten peace. Along with this, coercive measures in relation to the aggressor are provided for in the treaties on mutual assistance and post-war cooperation concluded by the Soviet Union with a number of states, mainly with the states of people's democracies in Central and Southeastern Europe.

Of course, the effectiveness of the system of coercive measures under the Charter of the United Nations primarily depends on how the members of the United Nations are actually faithful to the provisions of the Charter. Experience has shown that the major capitalist powers, primarily the United States and Great Britain, grossly violate the UN charter, try to pervert the institutions for maintaining peace and security provided for by the charter and turn the United Nations organization into a screen for camouflaging their imperialist plans. One of the most striking examples of the violation by the governments of the United States, Great Britain and France of the UN Charter and the direct undermining of this organization is the conclusion of an aggressive North Atlantic Treaty, under the guise of references to Art. 51 and 52 of the UN Charter, providing for the right to conclude the so-called. "regional agreements". As for the treaties on mutual assistance concluded by the Soviet Union, they are currently the most effective ways to preserve peace and international law and order, established as a result of the victory of peace-loving peoples over the aggressors.

The absence in international law of general legislation and a centralized coercive apparatus gave rise to some lawyers, mainly German (Iering, Lasson, Zorn), to assert that the provisions of the law are moral or political prescriptions, but not legal norms. The denial of the monetary policy, which was most often encountered in German literature, was a way of justifying the aggressive policy of the German ruling classes, which was always accompanied by cynical violations of the monetary policy. Soviet doctrine sharply rejects this reactionary concept.

If the law of law differs markedly from other branches of law in its legal nature, then it is no less noticeably different from them in its social content. While the internal law of a given state expresses the will of the ruling class in this state and is socially homogeneous, the metropolitan area is not always distinguished by such social homogeneity. It regulates the relations of many states, developing both on the basis of their cooperation to achieve common goals, and on the basis of their struggle for their special interests. The nature of these goals and interests is determined by the nature of the social and state structure of these states, which is far from always the same. Sometimes the totality of these states, or, as it is called, "international communication", retains social homogeneity, for example. in the 16-17 centuries, when it consisted of feudal states, although in some of them, for example. in England, Holland, the bourgeois order was already ripening, or in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it consisted of bourgeois states, although many of them retained, to a greater or lesser extent, feudal vestiges. But at the present time, when along with the bourgeois states there are the great socialist power - the USSR and the countries of people's democracies, states with sharply different social and political systems are facing in the international arena.

Due to the fact that interests domestic policy, the peculiarities of the internal system and the principles of internal statehood have a direct impact on foreign policy and on the norms and institutions of the public sphere, the latter contains layers of various social formations and even different historical periods. Individual traces of feudal traditions have not yet completely disappeared in the modern metropolitan area; an example is many of the rules of the diplomatic ceremony or the international legal position of the pope. In the modern metropolitan area, there are democratic principles introduced by bourgeois states during the period of bourgeois revolutions: sovereignty and equality of states, inviolability of state territory, non-interference in internal affairs, etc., and purely imperialist institutions introduced by the same bourgeois states during the period of imperialism, such , such as annexation, protectorates, spheres of influence, etc. The bourgeois states continued to formally recognize the above-mentioned democratic principles even during the imperialist period, but actually used them to disguise anti-democratic, imperialist goals (for example, the USA, England). The most aggressive bourgeois states (especially Germany and Japan) openly trampled on the most elementary foundations of the international trade and, discarding any camouflage, carried out open international robbery.

The socialist state, the Soviet Union, and its policy of peace and respect for the freedom of peoples, conditioned by the nature of the Soviet social and state system, exert a tremendous influence on the modern international sphere. There are no classes or groups in the Soviet Union interested in war or in inciting enmity between peoples. Soviet statehood is based on the equality and friendship of all peoples inhabiting the Soviet Union.

In the first years after the October Revolution, capitalist states, taking advantage of the weakness of the young Soviet Republic, tried to strangle it, and when this failed, they did everything to remove it from participation in international affairs. Even then, the Soviet Union, rejecting the anti-democratic institutions of the international law, abandoning unequal treaties, the regime of capitulations and spheres of influence in the countries of the East, concluding treaties with these countries on the basis of the principles of sovereignty and equality, contributed to the strengthening of democratic principles in international relations in general. Later, the Soviet Union made a great contribution to expanding and strengthening the methods of preventing and suppressing aggression in the Moscow region. He suggested international definition aggression to make it difficult to legalize and disguise it; proposed measures to apply the charter of the League of Nations in the sense of making the sanctions against aggression more effective; proclaimed the principle of "the indivisibility of the world." In the sphere of strengthening business ties between states, the Soviet Union proclaimed the principle of equality of economic systems existing within individual states. In addition, he created a new institute of industrial trade - trade representations of the USSR, in which one of the foundations of the socialist economic system - the state monopoly of foreign trade in the USSR - received direct expression.

The Soviet Union has continuously developed and is developing international legal methods of cooperation between states both in the field of peacekeeping and in the field of economic relations. In a conversation with the leader of the US Republican Party, Stassen, JV Stalin fully explained the attitude of the Soviet Union to international cooperation: "We must distinguish between the opportunity to cooperate and the desire to cooperate. There is always the possibility of cooperation, but there is not always the desire to cooperate." Noting that "cooperation does not require the peoples to have the same system," JV Stalin emphasized that the people and the Communist Party of the USSR had a desire to cooperate. This desire for cooperation is based not on transient opportunistic calculations, but on the desire for a lasting and lasting peace, on respect for the independence of each people and on a deep conviction that the peaceful competition of two social systems most fully reveals the advantages of the socialist system over the capitalist one. The more the share of the Soviet Union in international life increases, the more it becomes a center of attraction for all peoples interested in preserving peace and in the triumph of democratic principles in Moscow.

Thus, the modern law of law, in contrast to the law of the internal state, is in its content a complex result of the struggle and cooperation of states that are not homogeneous either economically, socially or politically.

The Second World War overturned the foundations of the international regime that emerged after the First World War, and a number of norms and institutions of the international law that consolidated this regime. At the same time, the most important socio-political factors influencing the development of M. p. Have changed.

First of all, the military, economic and political power of three large aggressive states (Germany, Italy and Japan), which were great powers before the war and, therefore, had a considerable share in international relations, turned out to be broken.

Secondly, the international importance of the Soviet Union, which played a decisive role in the victory over the aggressive states and around which the progressive and democratic forces of the whole world united, has increased enormously. International significance The Soviet Union rests not only on its military, economic and political power, but also on its moral authority, which has grown greatly during the war years. "The whole world," wrote JV Stalin in his May Day 1946 order, "had the opportunity to be convinced not only of the might of the Soviet state, but also of the just nature of its policy, based on the recognition of the equality of all peoples, on respect for their freedom and independence."

Thirdly, after the defeat of Nazi Germany and its allies in Europe, democratic states of a new type appeared, laying the foundations for the transition to socialism and connected by close friendship with the Soviet Union: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, etc. They also constitute an important factor in strengthening peaceful and democratic trends in international politics.

Fourthly, it should be noted that the upsurge of the national liberation movement of the peoples of a number of colonial and semi-colonial countries, and, above all, China, sharply intensified as a result of the war.

All these changes signify a weakening of the forces of imperialism and reaction, a strengthening of the forces of socialism and democracy, and, consequently, affect the development of the industrial sector in a progressive and democratic direction. However, along with them, there are other factors acting in the opposite direction. First of all, these are the reactionary governments and ruling circles of large capitalist states, primarily the United States and Britain, which are pursuing purely imperialist tendencies in international politics. They tried to carry them out even during the war, but were not able to change the liberation and anti-fascist character of the war, conditioned by the participation of the Soviet Union in it. After the war, differences in the goals of the war and in post-war plans began to deepen, and two opposite political lines were formed: the policy of the USSR and the countries of people's democracies, aimed at undermining imperialism and strengthening democracy, and the policy of the United States and Britain, aimed at strengthening imperialism and strangling democracy. ... The imperialist policy of the United States and Britain, which received such a vivid expression in Churchill's Fulton speech, in the so-called. "Truman Doctrine" and "Marshall Plan", is clearly manifested in calls for US global hegemony and a campaign against the USSR and the countries of new democracies, in the organization of all kinds of imperialist blocs, hiding under the guise of "defense" far-reaching aggressive goals, such as, for example. , t. n. The "Western Union", the Atlantic Pact, in expansion, in economic enslavement and gross violation of the independence of many states and interference in the internal life of peoples, in efforts to push the Soviet Union out of participation in international affairs and in the propaganda of a new world war. To this must be added the preservation of hotbeds of fascist aggression existing on the scale of entire states, such as Spain or Greece, or in the form of separate non-liquidated fascist groups and organizations, such as in the western zones of Germany, Italy, and Japan. There can be no doubt that these hotbeds continue to exist only because they find fertile ground in the support of the imperialist reaction in the USA and England.

So, in the post-war period, a new alignment of the main political forces operating in the world arena was determined. Two camps were formed: the anti-imperialist and democratic camp, which has as its main goal the strengthening of peace and democracy and the elimination of the remnants of fascism, the struggle for socialism, and the imperialist and anti-democratic camp, which has as its main goal the establishment of world domination of American imperialism and the destruction of democracy. The struggle between these two opposing camps constitutes the content of modern international life and determines the development of the modern metropolitan area. pseudo-Pacifist phraseology. Typical examples are such agreements on military and economic "assistance" concluded on the basis of the so-called. the "Truman Doctrines" and the "Marshall Plan" like the "Western Union" and the North Atlantic Pact. On the other hand, the states of the democratic camp use the most progressive institutions of the former public relations, significantly deepening their democratic content, and along with this create new, consistently democratic institutions of the public relations, which, for example, have been very vividly embodied in treaties of friendship. mutual assistance and cooperation and in economic and cultural agreements concluded by the Soviet Union with the states of people's democracies and the latter among themselves. Two opposite tendencies in international politics and in the development of international politics collide sharply in the United Nations organization, in the international institutions associated with it, and in general when it comes to the application in practice of all those international acts that were jointly adopted by the Allied powers during and at the end of the Second World War.

Norms and institutions. M. p., In spite of all their differences and diversity, constitute a definite system. The system of modern international law can be reduced to the following basic international legal norms and institutions:

1. The norms and institutions that determine the legal status of the state in international communication, that is, the basic rights and obligations of the state as a subject of international relations (sovereignty and equality, non-interference in internal affairs, responsibility for international offenses, etc.).

2. Norms and institutions governing the protection by states in their mutual relations of the rights and interests of the population (the procedure for acquiring and losing citizenship, the legal regime of foreigners, the protection of the rights of national minorities; after the war, norms governing the protection of the rights of the population of the colonies, etc.) Non-Self-Governing Territories ", norms prohibiting racial discrimination, etc.).

3. Norms and institutions that establish the international legal regime of the territory (methods of acquiring and losing state territory, the regime of internal and international river and sea waters and air space, etc.).

4. The norms and institutions that determine the legal status of foreign relations bodies abroad (embassy and consular law; this should also include the norms concerning the status of employees of international institutions).

5. Norms and institutions governing the operation of international treaties (the procedure for their conclusion and ratification, conditions for their amendment and termination, etc.).

6. Norms and institutions that determine the structure, rights, functions and procedures for the activities of international organizations, primarily the United Nations.

7. Norms and institutions that establish forms of international cooperation between states on special, mainly economic and humanitarian issues.

8. Norms and institutions that determine international legal methods for resolving disputes (conciliation, mediation of individual states or the General Assembly and the UN Security Council, international arbitration, international court, etc.).

9. Norms and institutions defining international legal methods of preventing and suppressing aggression. At the same time, along with diplomatic, economic and military sanctions under the UN Charter, individual and collective ways of protecting the state from illegal and aggressive actions: retortion, reprisals, individual or collective armed self-defense against aggression, remain important. This should also include the norms prohibiting the propaganda of aggression.

10. Norms and institutions defining the rights and obligations of belligerent states in relation to the conduct of war, as well as the legal status of neutral states - the so-called. laws and customs of war. In connection with the prohibition of wars of aggression under the UN Charter, these norms should be revised, meaning their application to wars of sanctions and to defensive wars against the aggressor. International legal methods of ending a war (ceasefire, preliminary and final peace treaties), which until now belonged to the "right of war", now, in view of the development of institutions associated with responsibility for a war of aggression and guarantees against the resumption of aggression (allied control, reparations, punishment war criminals, etc.) and making serious changes in international life, go, strictly speaking, outside the framework of the law of war and acquire the closest connection also with other parts of the system of international affairs.

The norms and institutions of the law of law governing legal relations between the states themselves (and partly between states and international organizations), moreover, legal relations falling within the competence of the highest state power constitute, according to generally accepted terminology, a system of international public law... Along with it, there is a system of private international law, the norms and institutions of which regulate - directly or by referring to the corresponding national legislation - civil legal relations developing between citizens of different states or associated with the territory of different states.

Finally, in modern period, in connection with the establishment of an international criminal liability for crimes against peace, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, now regarded as international crimes, international criminal law is separated from the general system of law enforcement into a special system. An important stage in the development of this new system was the adoption (on the basis of an agreement between the governments of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France on 8 August 1945) of the charter of the International Military Tribunal to punish the main war criminals of the Axis countries.


Diplomatic Dictionary... - M .: State Publishing House of Political Literature. A. Ya. Vyshinsky, S. A. Lozovsky. 1948 .

The main ones are the following:

  1. Both of these systems are a set of legal principles and norms that can be enforced.
  2. Systems have a similar structure: both have basic principles, both are divided into industries and institutions, the primary element of both systems is the rule of law.

There are many theories regarding the nature of the relationship between domestic and international law. Here are some of them.

Dualistic and monistic theories

Both of these directions proceed from the fact that there is a common sphere in which international legal and national legal norms can act simultaneously in relation to the same subject, and the problem is which law should prevail in this case.

The dualistic doctrine indicates a significant difference between international and domestic law, which, first of all, lies in the fact that these two systems have different subject of regulation. International law is the law governing relations between sovereign states; domestic law operates within the state and regulates the relations of its citizens with each other and with the executive branch.

According to this concept, no legal order can create or change the norms of another. In the event of a conflict between international and domestic law, a supporter of the dualistic theory would proceed from the assumption that the national court would apply national law. Even when domestic law directly provides that international law in general or in any part of it is subject to application in a given country, this is just a manifestation of the supremacy of domestic law, the adoption or transformation of international law (Trippel, Stroop, Oppenheim).

Monism is represented by a number of lawyers whose theories differ significantly from each other. Thus, in the works of the English scientist Lauterpacht, monism takes the form of asserting the primacy of international law even in the domestic sphere, along with the well-developed concept of the individual as a subject of international law. According to this theory, domestic law is assigned a very insignificant role, while international law acts as the best regulator of "human affairs, as well as a logical condition for the legal existence of states", and, consequently, national legal systems in the sphere of legal competence of states.

According to Kelsen, the scientific basis of monism is the provision according to which international law and domestic law are part of the same system of norms, the strength and content of which logically follow from a certain basic norm.

Supporters of the theory of coordination (Fitzmaurice, Rousseau) dispute the dualistic and monistic concepts, suggesting a common sphere of activity in both international and domestic law. In their opinion, international law is the right of coordination, which does not provide for the automatic abolition of internal norms that are contrary to obligations on the international plane.

Having carried out a comparative analysis of the systems of international law and domestic law, identifying the features of the first, we can say that international law is a special system of law, which is a set of international legal principles and norms created by the subjects themselves and regulating relations between states, nations and peoples who are fighting for their independence, international organizations and state-like entities.

The system of international law is a set of internally interrelated elements: generally recognized principles and norms of international law (contractual and customary), institutions of international law. In various combinations, the aforementioned elements of the system constitute branches of international law.

The core of the system of international law is the basic principles, which are the fundamental norms of international law, the norms of jus cogens, which are universal and have supreme legal force.

These include:

  1. prohibitions on the use of force and the threat of force;
  2. peaceful settlement of disputes; inviolability of state borders;
  3. territorial integrity of states;
  4. general and complete disarmament;
  5. respect for state sovereignty;
  6. non-interference in the internal affairs of states;
  7. fulfillment of international obligations in good faith;
  8. sovereign equality of states;
  9. cooperation;
  10. equality and self-determination of peoples and nations;
  11. respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;
  12. environmental protection;
  13. responsibility.

The main element of the system, " building material», Are the norms of international law, which are the rules of conduct of subjects of international law, established and ensured by themselves.

The classification of international legal norms can be carried out on several grounds:

  • in terms of legal force, there are mandatory and dispositive nomes of international law.

Peremptory norms, or as they are also called, jus cogens norms, are norms from which the subjects of international law cannot derogate even by mutual agreement. If an international treaty contradicts the peremptory norms of international law, then it is legally null and void.

This situation is recorded in Art. 53 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which states:

“A treaty is null and void if, at the time of its conclusion, it contradicts a peremptory norm of general international law ... A peremptory norm of general international law is a norm that is accepted and recognized by the international community of states as a whole as a norm, a deviation from which is unacceptable and which can only be changed by a subsequent norm of general international law of the same nature. "

The peremptory norms of international law include the basic principles of international law, special (sectoral) principles (for example, the principle of freedom of the high seas, the principle of inalienable sovereignty of states over their natural wealth and resources, etc.) and some other norms (for example, norms on diplomatic privileges and immunities).

Dispositive - these are norms from which states can derogate by mutual agreement. They are mandatory, but the states concerned can conclude treaties that establish other norms, act in accordance with them, and such behavior will be lawful if it does not harm the interests of other states.

- according to the circle of participants, the norms of international law are divided into multilateral and bilateral. So, for example, the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. contains multilateral norms, and the 1987 Treaty between the USSR and the USA on the elimination of intermediate and shorter-range missiles. - d v s to r about n e.

- according to the functional orientation, the norms of international law can be divided into universal and local.

Universal norms are associated with common human interests and are always multilateral. They must be accepted by the majority of states. Universal norms of international law are contained in the 1945 UN Charter, 1949 Geneva Conventions for the Protection of War Victims. and etc.

Local norms regulate relations closely related to the interests of the states that create these norms. It can be two states (for example, the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States on the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START-2) 1993) and a group of states, as a rule, of one geographic region (for example, treaties concluded by EU member states ). Therefore, local rules can be both bilateral and multilateral.

The norms of international law form the institutions and branches of international law, which, in turn, are also elements of the system of international law.

Branches of international law regulate large "blocks" of international relations of a certain type and represent a set of international legal institutions and norms that regulate more or less isolated relations that are distinguished by their qualitative originality (for example, the law of international organizations, international maritime law, the law of international treaties, the law of external intercourse, etc.).

The Institute of International Law is a group of international legal norms regulating more or less homogeneous relations. These relations, although they are distinguished by their qualitative originality, nevertheless cannot obtain the status of a legal branch.

Institutions are divided into sectoral and cross-sectoral.

Intersectoral institutions include institutions, a significant part of international norms which is part of two or more industries (for example, the institution of international legal responsibility, the institution of succession).

The norms of the branch institute are formed within individual industries, covering one or another of their subdivisions (for example, in international maritime law, one can distinguish groups of norms regulating the legal regime of the territorial sea, economic zone, continental shelf, the legal regime of the high seas, etc.) ).

The elements of the system of international law are united into a single whole by the subject and method of legal regulation.

The subject of legal regulation in international law is interstate relations arising in a particular area of ​​international life. And the method of legal regulation is the method of harmonizing the wills of states and other subjects of international law.

The sources of international law can be defined as the forms in which the norms of international law exist, i.e. as a result of the process of creating such rules.

In the process of creating the norms of international law, states act as sovereign and equal subjects. Therefore, their wills are legally equivalent. The legal equality of states in the process of creating norms of international law means that most states have no right to create norms that are binding on a minority and try to impose them on other states.

The result of the agreement of the wills of states is an international treaty and international custom.

An international treaty is an agreement between two or more states or other subjects of international law, establishing their mutual rights in political, economic or other relations, concluded, as a rule, in writing and regulated by international law.

Oral international agreements are extremely rare in practice and are called "gentlemen's agreements".

An international treaty can be named in different ways - agreement, convention, pact, act, treaty, etc.

An international treaty consists of a preamble (defines the motives, goals of the treaty), the main part (the subject of the treaty, the rights and obligations of the parties, the control mechanism) and the final part (the procedure for the entry into force of the treaty, its validity period, the procedure for prolongation, etc.). A treaty may have annexes that specify its main provisions and have the same legal force with the text of the international treaty itself.

According to the number of participants, international treaties are divided into bilateral and multilateral; by sphere of action - into universal, regional and local; on accession issues - on open (any state can join them in the manner provided for in the agreement itself) and closed (such an agreement can only be joined with the consent of its participants).

International custom is evidence of the general practice of states, recognized as law. Such a definition of international custom is given in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice.

Everything general practice is the first stage in the creation of customary legal norms. General practice does not necessarily mean the practice of all states. Often, states, for one reason or another, cannot have practice on some issues (for example, landlocked states).

As a result of the first stage of coordination of the wills of states, a custom is formed, i.e. a rule of conduct usually followed by the state, but which is not yet a legal norm. Ordinary is a general practice that does not reflect a legal obligation (for example in in this case naval ceremonies may serve).

In order to become a norm of international law, a custom must go through the second, final stage, which consists in agreeing the will of states regarding the recognition of a custom as a legal norm.

Ordinance becomes a norm of international law only after two or more states have recognized it in this capacity. Thus, the custom is recognized as a norm of international law by agreeing the wills of states.

In the formation of the usual norm, the element of time (in contrast to the formation of a habit) does not play a significant role. The usual rate can develop for a long time, and can be formed quickly enough.

Usually, legal norms are most often found in the law of external relations (the head of government of one state is met by the head of government of another state) and the law of the sea (a merchant ship of one state greets a warship of another state by the first way to lower the flag to half the flagpole).

Today, states are increasingly preferring the treaty way of creating norms of international law, which has a number of advantages over the usual one:

  • the contracting process is going faster;
  • coordination of the wills of states is of a pronounced character;
  • the treaty process makes it possible for all states to participate in the creation of the norms of international law, to discuss the issues raised, consciously, to gradually coordinate their positions.